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MSc Course Unit on Sustainability and Social Responsibility - BMAN 73102

Individual Assignment: ‘Strategy for a net-zero economy’ Propose a turnaround strategy for being competitive in a net-zero economy for a company of your choice, using insights from the lectures, readings, and seminars This assignment consists of an individual report. The focus of this second assignment is on strategies to be competitive in a net-zero economy. Currently, companies across industries emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that contribute to the climate emergency. In response to the societal pressure to tackle the climate emergency, many companies have set ‘net-zero’ targets. They have pledged to reduce their own GHG emissions as much as possible and offset the remaining emissions. To achieve a net-zero target, companies have to implement a turnaround strategy which drastically reduces their carbon footprint. Such a turnaround strategy can involve innovation, acquisitions and divestments, or investments in carbon offsets. In your report, you will analyse a company’s carbon footprint and discuss their strategy for a net-zero economy. You have to analyse a company of your choice that has made a net-zero pledge recently (for a list see: https://carbon.ci/insights/companies-with-net- zero-targets/). You will first analyse what the main causes are of the company’s footprint (e.g., energy use/transportation/manufacturing/supply chain/use of products etc.). Then, you will analyse the net-zero target and the strategic options that the company is proposing to achieve their target. Critically discuss their feasibility, using insights from the lectures, readings, and seminars (mainly of Part 2 on Strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship for a net-zero economy, but we assume you will have knowledge of Part 1 as well). Finally, you will provide a recommendation for how the net-zero strategy could be adapted to improve the company’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. You have to choose a new company, so NOT the one that you have studied in your group report. Make sure that you can find sufficient information on the carbon footprint and net-zero target and proposed measures to reduce GHG emissions. You have to choose a company for which you can find sufficient information (e.g., on company webpages, annual reports, press releases, etc.).

You must address the following four points in your report:

1. Describe the main causes of the company’s carbon footprint. Critically discuss why continuing business-as usual would threaten the company’s competitive position in the mid-to-long-term.

2. Explain why the company has set a net-zero target. Critically discuss the net-zero target and the motivation for setting the target. How ambitious is the target and how realistic is its timeline? Is there a clear business case for setting a net-zero target?

3. Analyse and critically discuss the strategic options that the company has

proposed to meet its net-zero target. How achievable would the options be in the short-to-mid-term? How will their implementation affect the company’s competitiveness? Will the strategy contribute to the societal goal of creating a net-zero economy?

4. Provide recommendations for how the net-zero strategy could be adapted to improve the company’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A few suggestions to consider when trying to address this fourth point in your report:

• How could the strategy not only help address SDG 13 on climate action but also some of the other SDGs?

• Perhaps you can identify some barriers that make it difficult for the company to achieve its net-zero target and you have suggestions for how to overcome these barriers?

• Perhaps regulations, shareholder pressure or competition inhibit the companies from being more ambitious with their net-zero target, and you can provide recommendations on how to deal with such pressures.

• Perhaps the company needs to collaboratively develop new technologies to achieve its net-zero target? What type of technologies should they consider? Which partners would be good?

Instructions: You should use the lectures slides, course material and additional material (all available on BlackBoard) of Part 2 of this course unit (weeks 6-10) to address the above points. This material provides information on strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship for a net-zero economy.

In addition to integrating academic sources (i.e., the course material and additional reading material) in your report, you should use a variety of other sources that contain information on the net-zero strategy of your company, such as websites, annual reports, press releases, newspaper articles, trade and industry journals. The maximum length of the report is 2,000 words, excluding references and appendices, and you may apply the 10% rule. The report has to follow the guidelines set out in a separate document, which is called: ‘How to Write a Management Report’. These guidelines are available on Blackboard. You should consider the PGT marking criteria available on Blackboard, in the folder ‘Assignments’. They are used to mark the reports. Weighting of marks for the Individual Assignment: The mark of the individual report forms 70% of the overall mark for the course unit. Due dates for the Individual Assignment: The deadline for submitting the individual report in Blackboard’s Turnitin is Thursday 6 May 2021 at 10 am.

‘This assessment is subject to external moderation’